Territory vs. Hierarchy
I stole this idea from book on writing, but it can just as easily be applied to all of life.
We live in a hierarchical society, where we are trying to climb the ladder to achieve greater respect, recognition, and value. The higher we are, the "better" we are. We have been conditioned to follow those "rules", the idea that we have to fight for our value.
Territory is the idea that since we are all individuals, we all have our own territory, our own space to operate from. We don't have to worry about fighting to be "better" than, because they have something we don't, and we have something they don't. We are all equally valuable and important to society.
Religion says that the Christian walk is about being "better", but faith says that it is about being "close", that relationship matters more than righteousness. By the transforming grace of God, righteousness comes through relationship.
The process of living in territory over hierarchy is a life long process of daily choices. It's hard to undo the habits and mindsets that we have gone our whole lives cooperating with, but it is imperative to our identity. The Bible says that God loves us just as much as He loves Jesus, yet clearly Jesus is of greater importance in the grand scheme of things. Clearly we do not have to earn God's love, no amount of promotion or knowledge will increase or decrease it. We are not the sum of what we know or how much we can regurgitate, or how righteous or perfect we can act.
The concept of territory takes away the need for shame or guilt. Repentance is always necessary, but guilt and shame separate our hearts from God. I'll do a separate post on shame and guilt because I don't want this to turn into a book (well, at least not right now).
People based fears are usually from living in a hierarchy mindset when the kingdom of heaven operates from territory. Every fear of being worthless or of being unloved or laughed at or anything else you can think of, is all from the ideology that we are not enough as we are, that we do not have inherent value as a child of God, our own territory to stand in.
This isn't a new idea, but it is one that we have apparently not internalized. It's easy for someone to tell you that you have inherent value, that nothing you ever do will take away or add to you enough to be "better", but it's hard to choose to believe in every interaction that no one can invade the space that you occupy. And you can't invade theirs.
Grace for grace supports the idea of territory, the idea that God's out-pour of grace is not dependent on our merit or level of Christianity. His grace is dependent on His goodness, and His love for us, which is out of our control. We cannot earn more grace because He has already given us His full amount of grace! God is bigger than us, and it is foolish to think that we can earn anything more from Him by being good enough.
Our territory is a gift that He has given us. It means freedom to be exactly who we are and be fully seen and known and accepted. We have a place in the kingdom of heaven, and in God's heart, NO MATTER WHAT. We have so much room to explore and play because we don't have to follow any rules of how we come to Him. Absolute freedom.
We live in a hierarchical society, where we are trying to climb the ladder to achieve greater respect, recognition, and value. The higher we are, the "better" we are. We have been conditioned to follow those "rules", the idea that we have to fight for our value.
Territory is the idea that since we are all individuals, we all have our own territory, our own space to operate from. We don't have to worry about fighting to be "better" than, because they have something we don't, and we have something they don't. We are all equally valuable and important to society.
Religion says that the Christian walk is about being "better", but faith says that it is about being "close", that relationship matters more than righteousness. By the transforming grace of God, righteousness comes through relationship.
The process of living in territory over hierarchy is a life long process of daily choices. It's hard to undo the habits and mindsets that we have gone our whole lives cooperating with, but it is imperative to our identity. The Bible says that God loves us just as much as He loves Jesus, yet clearly Jesus is of greater importance in the grand scheme of things. Clearly we do not have to earn God's love, no amount of promotion or knowledge will increase or decrease it. We are not the sum of what we know or how much we can regurgitate, or how righteous or perfect we can act.
The concept of territory takes away the need for shame or guilt. Repentance is always necessary, but guilt and shame separate our hearts from God. I'll do a separate post on shame and guilt because I don't want this to turn into a book (well, at least not right now).
People based fears are usually from living in a hierarchy mindset when the kingdom of heaven operates from territory. Every fear of being worthless or of being unloved or laughed at or anything else you can think of, is all from the ideology that we are not enough as we are, that we do not have inherent value as a child of God, our own territory to stand in.
This isn't a new idea, but it is one that we have apparently not internalized. It's easy for someone to tell you that you have inherent value, that nothing you ever do will take away or add to you enough to be "better", but it's hard to choose to believe in every interaction that no one can invade the space that you occupy. And you can't invade theirs.
Grace for grace supports the idea of territory, the idea that God's out-pour of grace is not dependent on our merit or level of Christianity. His grace is dependent on His goodness, and His love for us, which is out of our control. We cannot earn more grace because He has already given us His full amount of grace! God is bigger than us, and it is foolish to think that we can earn anything more from Him by being good enough.
Our territory is a gift that He has given us. It means freedom to be exactly who we are and be fully seen and known and accepted. We have a place in the kingdom of heaven, and in God's heart, NO MATTER WHAT. We have so much room to explore and play because we don't have to follow any rules of how we come to Him. Absolute freedom.
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